


Bondage

by Zenolalia



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Coda, F/M, Multi, Not Beta Read, Podfic Welcome, Purple Prose, Re:Mind Spoilers, Spoilers, Translation Welcome, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:15:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22517614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zenolalia/pseuds/Zenolalia
Summary: Just like always, it’s Riku. The chosen one gone wrong. The Master of Keyblades. The extra. Alone and—far worse than forgotten—disregarded. In the end, relationships and chains are both bonds.
Relationships: Kairi/Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	Bondage

Everywhere Riku looks, there are pairs, trios, matched sets, and repaired wholes.

The utter faith in the held-tall backs of Aqua, Ventus and Terra as the plunged into the world of darkness. A perfect harmony of speed, strength, magic, striding into a world of broken pieces so far from their own home, certain in the knowledge that they would return, that nothing could harm them when they are together.

The wide-eyed joy Naminé spills into her sketches and illustrations, studying the curves and edges of a world that wants her for herself. The brilliant pride on Even's face as the girl he could have destroyed instead marks down his research notes with studious efficiency.

The babbling clash of Ienzo and Pence talking over each other about some new friction in the massive, inter-world networks of computers that have rapidly become their shared passion. The immense gratitude in Ienzo's posture when Olette bumps him with her hip and Hayner tells them both that they've been inside too long and everyone is going to the beach.

The way Xion screamed the delicacy right out of Roxas and Lea after one too many gentle glances restrained by paranoia they'd break the illusion of her. The way they both still seem so awed by the gift of her existence, when she's not looking, and the way she lets them think she doesn't notice because at least they admit she could probably kick in their teeth--Lea's at least--with enough effort.

Riku thinks for a long time that Isa's gentle bewilderment when Xion twines her fingers through his own burns worst. Tall, dark, once condemned to the darkness and isolation, and now held safe by the grinning ghost of Kairi, bumping shoulders with a childhood friend and sharing meals with the reformed reflection of Sora.

But the worst of it comes unexpectedly in the courtyard of the Radiant Garden castle. The colours are all wrong. Sallow skin, black hair, eyes gold and bright as a heartless’s. Lurking in the shadow of the looming walls is Sora if he were made of Darkness and all that stubborn hope were relentless pessimism.

He's heard about the echoing similarity of Vanitas and Sora. Not as absolute as the mirror reflections of Ventus and Roxas. But knowing about it hadn’t prepared him for the reality. Seeing it makes him choke. He doesn't fall because he has trained for years not to, but he fumbles. And, quick as he notices the other man, Vanitas is gone again. Less melting into darkness, more blinking away like a dream.

If Riku were suspicious it would feel like an ill omen. Instead, it puts him in a mood he neither wants nor needs. Heart race, teeth grinding, shaky with the rush of fear and confusion and need, enervated by the realization that his reflexes were wrong. He can stand the uselessness of it. All he wants is to be kind and patient and hopeful as he visits Kairi's body, absent her heart by choice and her mind by medicine.

He forces his jaw to unclench, but the eased pressure doesn't help at all.

He doesn't mean to resent them. He's known his place in their lives for so long. He doesn’t belong to any of these people. They’re his friends, and he is theirs, but he isn’t a part of them. The starlight of his heart is a pale glint in their hearts, compared to the blazing suns of Kairi and Sora in his own. The discomfort and envy fester against his will.

He doesn’t mean to resent Sora and Kairi, either. They aren't a stable triple like Aqua, Ventus and Terra. There isn't a central axle around whom the spokes of their relationship burst forth and wheel back into each other, like Lea, with Isa, Roxas and Xion. He isn't even whole and self-possessed in isolation, the way Naminé has long since become, the way Vanitas seems to be as well.

For Riku, there is the brilliant foundation of Sora and Kairi's bond. And there is him, with delicate, ghostly chains pinning each of his wrists to the two of them in turn. He cannot define himself without them. So much of him is defined by their absence.

It boils in his skull, burns out his eyes, cracks his teeth. It had seemed, for those long and golden moments, that he wouldn't be left to his isolation and shadows again.

Then Sora dissolved into nothing, with only Kairi to hold him as he faded. Kairi threw herself into a bloodless coma that makes Riku's heart churn with the memories of the last time. The silence, the stillness, the way she breathed and her blood beat through her veins, and there was nothing there. It's all the same, but for the most important piece. The keystone. This time Sora isn't there to hold her heart safe within his own.

So, just like always, it’s him. Riku. The Master of Keyblades. Alone and—far worse than forgotten—disregarded.

Left blinking tears away from the blinding light of their bond.

He cannot decide if it would be better to finally make his lacking nature a spoken fact, rather than an unmentioned assumption. If he could just, perhaps, make them release him from this agonizing charge of guardianship. If it weren’t his unwanted duty to watch two beautiful souls chase each other in an endless cycle through death and destruction, just to give each other an extra day? Would he be happy then?

But, these are chains he cannot break, and neither of them waited long enough to set him free of them either.

So, he visits Kairi’s warm and breathing corpse, the only thing left of the most important people in his life.

What else is there to do?

  
  



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